Healthcare consumers who want to know more about their family’s genealogy are purchasing direct-to-consumer (DTC) home genetic tests in record numbers. It is a trend that worries some medical laboratory professionals and certain federal government agencies.

MITTechnology Review (MIT) dubbed 2017, “The year consumer DNA testing blew up.” As a result of record-breaking sales of DTC genetic testing last year, about 12-million people have now been tested, MIT reported. “The inflection pointed started in the summer of 2016, and from there it’s gone into the stratosphere,” David Mittelman, PhD, Molecular Biophysics, told MIT.

Clearly, consumers are becoming comfortable with the concept of genetic testing on themselves and their family members. However, major issues—such as who owns genetic information and how patient privacy is protected—have yet to be resolved.

Dark Daily recently reported that more than 1.5 million kits were sold by Ancestry.com during the four-day Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend prior to Christmas 2017. That e-briefing also explored related privacy issues and informed readers about efforts by federal lawmakers to explore genetic testing companies’ privacy and disclosure practices.

According to a news release, by the end of November, sales of AncestryDNA kits exceeded the total number of subscribers the Utah-based company had when it started the year. Now, more than seven million people are in Ancestry’s database.

Meanwhile, 23andMe, a personal genomics company established in 2006, has genotyped more than three million people worldwide. In addition to an ancestry test, it offers a health and ancestry service providing information on genetic health risks, carrier status, traits, wellness, and ancestry, according to the company’s website.

Experts Concerned About Privacy and Use of ‘Raw’ DNA Data

“2018 will bring a regular drumbeat of new experiences and enhancements across both DNA and family history,” Howard Hochhauser, Ancestry’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, predicted in the news release.

However, a recent study published in Translational Behavioral Medicine (TBM) which noted the robust sales of DTC genetic tests in 2017, also called attention to a new concern surrounding the impact of “raw” DNA interpretation results.

“People often enter the direct-to-consumer market for recreational purposes, such as learning about their ancestry. Yet, what we started seeing was that these same individuals subsequently come across third-party interpretation services where they proceeded to learn more about their ‘raw’ DNA made available by the ancestry testing companies,” stated Catharine Wang, PhD, Boston University (BU) Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences, and the study’s lead author, in a BU statement.

The study cited sales of DTC genetic tests at $99 million in 2017 and explored potential negative implications of consumers’ access to “raw” DNA data.

“We were especially interested in the downstream implications of receiving unexpected disease risk information from these newer services that subsequently lead consumers to seek out a genetic counselor’s consult,” Wang noted.

Catharine Wang, PhD (above), Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University and lead author of the study, notes, “There are a lot of people saying, ‘I’m smart enough to make decisions; give me the information and get the doctors out of the way. But they’re making some serious decisions about their health after seeing only part of the picture.” (Photo copyright: Boston University Research.)

The research team surveyed 85 genetic counselors. Fifty-three percent of them reported meeting with DTC test costumers who had accessed ‘raw’ DNA data and used genetic interpretation companies, which are not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to get more information about themselves. However, results of the sessions were not always positive for either patients or counselors.

According to the study, counselors reported their biggest challenge as “undoing misinterpretations and correcting patient beliefs about their raw DNA results.”

The study noted, “When genetic counselors tried to clarify misunderstandings, patients were not only resistant but sometimes appeared hurt and frustrated that counselors were not taking their results seriously.”

“Counselors expressed concern about the quality of the raw data and the clarity and usefulness of interpretation reports. Efforts to better support both consumers and genetic service providers are needed to maximize the effective translation of genome-based knowledge for population health,” the study authors concluded.

Providers Should Improve Ability to Help Patients with DTC Genetic Data

In a MedCity News blog post, Peter Hulick, MD, Director of Personalized Medicine, NorthShore University HealthSystem, called for healthcare providers to assist patients who are dealing with new DTC genetic services and possible data overload.

“Findings show having widespread access to personal genetic information—without the knowledge of how to interpret results—can lead to problems ranging from misinterpretation to emotional distress,” he noted. “The medical community must work harder and smarter to incorporate this information into practice and empower patients as consumers and partners in healthcare decision-making.”

Anatomic pathologists and clinical laboratory leaders also should acknowledge and monitor consumers’ growing interest in these tests. Once patients’ have their DNA sequenced, the likelihood they will seek to know their predisposition to diseases is high and increasing. Thus, opportunities exist for medical laboratories to help physicians and consumers interpret DTC test results.